Railway container transportation between Turkey and South and Central European countries: An evaluation of the transportation modes by using the Beresford model

International trade is a very important factor in the economic development of countries. The increasing import and export activities worldwide, have in turn added to the demand of various types of transportation. To meet the growing demand, such effective, environment-friendly, and sustainable modes of transportation as multimodal, combined and intermodal have been developed. To maximize the efficiency of these modes and the effectiveness of the transportation activity, the advantageous features of a given transportation mode and those of the transportation type must be combined. Logistics companies which try to provide better service to their customers in the increasingly competitive circumstances of international transportation market, focus on these developed alternative modes of transportation. This study provides an analysis of the alternatives of the modes of transportation which are used or will be used in the trade between Turkey and South and Central European countries. Departing from the alternative transportation modes used in this trade, the objective of this analysis is to identify the feasible transportation mode based on such variables as distance, cost, and time. For this purpose, four alternative routes are identified which are used in the railway container transportation from Turkey to South and Central European countries. To be able to pin down the optimum transportation mode in these routes, supplementary solutions are presented for the selection of the optimum mode of transportation by using Beresford's distance-cost model. In the main and based on the data extracted from the analysis of distance, cost and time regarding the selected alternative routes, this study makes recommendations for deciding the optimum mode of transportation by presenting transportation costs for each route.